Non-Marvel and DC Comic Books on Film

[Matt]

It makes sense to have a Guardians of the Galaxy movie before the next Avengers movie so that they can all team up to fight Thanos.

It's weird to see someone call Iron Man "relatively obscure," because he always seemed like one of the biggest 5 or 6 Marvel heroes when I was growing up. I mean, if you had a Mego action figure, you couldn't really be obscure. But I guess you're right in that he's one of the major silver age Marvel characters who didn't have a stand-alone TV series, cartoon, or movie before the Marvel movies started up.

[knives]

Actually he had a '60s show where he was played by John Vernon of all people along with a '90s cartoon. I just meant obscure next to the big three of Marvel.

[dx23]

The only thing I'm afraid of is that they put too many characters in the Avengers sequel and just ruin the whole thing because of it. That's why I think Whedon should stay for Avengers 2 as he is pretty good balancing a lot of personalities in TV series and film.

[matrixschmatrix]

I get the feeling that part of why they're pushing some of the more obscure characters onstage is just that they don't have the rights most of the other big Marvel properties- I mean, take away the X-Men, Spiderman, and the Fantastic Four, and the Avengers and some strays are about all they have left. Obviously, they're going to want to cultivate franchises out of every character anybody's interested in- though I would guess that some of these are going to be standalones like the Punisher and Ghost Rider movies.

[dx23]

You are right about that, although it seems that the Fantastic Four and Daredevil rights are going to revert to Marvel if Fox doesn't come out with a film in a year or so. From what I've read, Daredevil wasn't part of the rights Fox acquired for perpetuity, just for a period of 10 years and from what it seems, the plans for a reboot have been squashed. Fox has been in plans of rebooting Fantastic Four but so far the project still in development and the rumors are that if Fox doesn't get a film done by the end of 2013, the rights revert back to Marvel. This will let Marvel work on projects using the Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, the Inhumans, the Skrulls and Galactus.

[matrixschmatrix]

God, I hope Fox loses the rights to Fantastic Four, they were easily the worst superhero movies of the whole boom.

[Matt]

The second Fantastic Four movie was a particular disgrace. Truly terrible.

I would LOVE to see a good Fantastic Four reboot featuring the Inhumans. People seemed to really like the cosmic angle in Thor and The Avengers, so that would fit right in. If the costume and production design paid tribute to Jack Kirby, even better.

[colinr0380]

Any Fantastic Four film would have to compete with the spectacular, no expense spared Roger Corman version!

[dx23]

As long as they keep Tim "I don't do robots in my films" Story, Mark Steven Johnson and Jeph Loeb far away from a Fantastic Four reboot or any Marvel film, we all be OK. I'm with Matt in that FF should have an Inhumans storyline and should do more Jack Kirby influenced stories. Also, they need to stop stunt casting. What has made all these Marvel movies so good is that the have gotten an almost perfect casting for everyone. Halle Berry and Jessica Alba are beautiful girls but they shouldn't have been cast as Storm and Sue Storm.

By the way, I also think that not every property Marvel has should be a movie. Street level characters like Daredevil and Punisher could be better of having TV series on HBO, Showtime or Starz.

[dx23]

Another obscure Marvel property is coming to theaters via Disney as Big Hero 6 is supposed to be the first animated feature between both companies. I know of some of the characters like Silver Samurai and Sunspot but never heard of this comic book before. I thought that something like Power Pack or the Runaways or even Cloak and Dagger would have been proposed before this.

[dx23]

So, what is the forum's thought on the Amazing Spider-Man? Although it finally incorporated some cool aspects of the origin like Gwen Stacy (excellently played by Emma Stone) being Peter's first love and the fact that Parker is a scientific genius, I though the film was a mess. I don't understand Sony's insistence in making Peter an hipster emo outsider instead of the scientific nerd, awkward guy he was in the comics. Why give him a skateboard when he was a clumsy, uncoordinated guy in the comics? While Raimi's first Spider-Man looks and feels outdated, he still portrayed Peter as someone who's body and phisiology truly changed when he got his powers. In AMS, it feels like Peter had the powers all his life.

The reboot was unnecessary and because of this Amazing Spider-Man feels like a compendium to the first Spider-Man. What saves this film is the fact that the actors were really good in their roles, including Garfield with the mediocre script he was given to work with. I just wished that the film tanked so that the character rights could be bought back by Marvel.

[Brian C]

I thought it was pretty by-the-numbers and almost entirely undistinguished. I really like Stone, but she wasn't given much of anything to do here, and didn't even get much more than a one-liner when

Spoiler

she learns Parker is Spidey.

How inattentive do the filmmakers have to be of their characters to not give her a better scene than that at that point of the movie?

Garfield was OK, I guess, but like you say his character was a poor fit for the movie, and frankly both of the leads seemed to be vaguely embarrassed to be playing high school students. They couldn't at least make them college students or something? Young professionals? Why high school when neither actor remotely passes for a teenager?

Otherwise, not much to say. Cookie-cutter story that seemed repurposed from an aborted X-Men movie; rote, formulaic action scenes; no supporting actors that made an impression. Seemed both overlong and understuffed. Didn't hate it but was a little relieved when it was over.

[knives]

So, what is the forum's thought on the Amazing Spider-Man? Although it finally incorporated some cool aspects of the origin like Gwen Stacy (excellently played by Emma Stone) being Peter's first love and the fact that Parker is a scientific genius, I though the film was a mess.

I hate to be that guy, because that guy is always horrible, but Stacy wasn't his first girlfriend. The first one anybody cares about, but not the first.

[dx23]

I mentioned first love, because Betty Brant was the first girlfriend and Liz Allan the platonic crush, but Gwen Stacy has always been regarded as Peter's first true love.

[knives]

I don't really see the difference, but that is probably just a personal thing.

[dx23]

Fantastic Four Reboot Finally Confirms Josh Trank As Director
David Slade Exits Daredevil, Fox Now Scrambling To Replace Him

Both properties are on the verge of reverting back to Marvel. I hope they do because I don't see any way Fox would be doing any good movies by rushing them out. The fact that Daredevil had the guy who directed Twilight: Eclipse at helm and he dropped out says a lot.

[dx23]

Lots of news from Marvel at Comic Con today. Some of the highlights:

- Ben Kingsley will play the Mandarin in Iron Man 3.
- Ant-Man is coming and will be directed by Edgar Wright. A test footage was shown at the Con.
- The Thor sequel will be called Thor: Dark Worlds
- The Captain America sequel will be called Captain America: Winter Soldier
- The art concept for Guardians of the Galaxy was shown.

Edit add: Release schedule
Iron Man 3: May 3rd, 2013.
Thor: The Dark World: November 8th, 2013.
Captain America: The Winter Solder: April 4th, 2014.
Guardians Of The Galaxy: August 1st, 2014.

[flyonthewall2983]

Thomas Jane and Phil Joanou put together a Punisher short and showed it at Comic-Con this weekend. It's now online, it's far from perfect but a better visual tone than the 2004 film. I think they (and Jane in particular, who has a genuine fondness for the character) are sending a message to Marvel that maybe this is a character worth revisiting.

[SpiderBaby]

If they could get Jane into a more over the top (not P:WZ goofy), gory Punisher film under the Marvel banner, that would be perfect.

[flyonthewall2983]

What I always thought would be perfect, given my limited knowledge of the character and the comic books in general, is set the origin story from the 2004 film in a fictional late 1970's NYC. Finally comes home from Vietnam after too long a tour, to find his family dead at the hands of the mobbed-up mayor, and go from there.

[SpiderBaby]

^ Great start.

[flyonthewall2983]

And really just make it as anti-glamorous as possible. Action sequences in small rooms, delve into the seedier side of that time in NYC (coked-up disco lounges, dark ghettos, rough S&M clubs), make a pretty clear distinction that he's now fighting an uglier war at home with more personal consequences.

[matrixschmatrix]

That sounds like it could have problematic Death Wish undertones of a white guy murdering his way through all the aspects of the culture that scare old white people (though I suppose that's always a risk with the Punisher.)

[SpiderBaby]

The last film with Stevenson, War Zone had the right idea with the Fassbinder-like neon color filled rooms, etc. Made it look like pages from the comics. They should keep that art direction along with your sleazy 70's coked-up disco lounges.

If they combine the art direction of War Zone with the human elements of the Jane Punisher, cast Jane and take him back to a sleazy 70's, we could have a good Punisher film finally.

[flyonthewall2983]

That sounds like it could have problematic Death Wish undertones of a white guy murdering his way through all the aspects of the culture that scare old white people (though I suppose that's always a risk with the Punisher.)

That's very true, and I think the same could be said of the short too. The trick would be to approach those scenarios in a way that makes the people entrenched in those environments more human. It's more easy to just have those environments be just background (or eye candy) without much thought as to what brings someone to what's considered by old white people depraved and immoral.